SURPRISE!

Today is my 30th birthday, so imagine my surprise when I got home with Emily from her dance class last night and found my children all packed up to do an overnight with my IL's, and Dan with a list of movie times and some dinner-out choices. WOW!

We went to dinner at TGI Friday's, where Dan informed them of my birthday. After a yummy bacon cheeseburger and fries (of which I ate half of and gave the rest to Dan because I got FULL), they came and sang me their version of Happy Birthday and gave me a little sundae. Dan says I was BRIGHT RED. I felt like I must have been... LOL

After dinner, we went to see this movie:


It was everything I'd hoped it would be (sweet, funny, romantic...perfect chick-flick) and everything Dan feared it would be. LOL! But he gave me the choice because it was my birthday, and we NEVER go out to the movies, so I figured I may as well make the best of things and pick one I was really hoping to see (he was hoping I'd pick Iron Man...NO THANK YOU!).

I have some sort of present waiting for me at some point today from Dan and the kids, and then we've been invited down to dinner at our neighbor's/friend's house for tonight (THEY knew ahead of time that Dan had plans for me LAST night, but I didn't), so that should be fun!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. I DON'T LOOK LIKE I'M THIRTY CUZ THEY STILL CARDED ME!!!!!! (when I ordered a drink)

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

I shot this video during one of Emily's dance classes shortly after she turned four as they were practicing their recital routine. It was her first year of dance and she seemed soooo grown up, but when I view this, two years later, I'm overcome with how LITTLE she seems!!!! Obviusly, they still had some more practicing to do, but I think this sort of thing is about the most adorable thing on the planet! I totally cried on recital day seeing her up on stage! (btw, she's the one that turns around and waves at me a few seconds into the video)

Friend Helping Friend

Here's me, not feeling very inspired or motivated to blog today (ran errands all morning blah blah blah and am TIRED now). Then here's me reading the blog of a blogger in need, with a request. Let's just say I've followed through with the request and TADA, now I have a blog entry as well. Win-Win situation...

CLICK HERE

Oh, the sweetness of a toddler

Connor can flip flop shockingly fast between screaming over everything and being generally obnoxious, to being just the sweetest little guy on the planet. Yesterday was an overall ROUGH day around here where Connor was concerned. Now that he's in the big boy bed (the toddler bed), and not the crib, he's waking up EARLY. Normally, I'd hear him stir a bit around 6am or 6:30am or so, but he'd settle in and go back to sleep for another hour to an hour and a half. NOW, he stirs a bit THEN GETS UP! And there's nothing I can do about it. As a result, he's Mr. Crankypants by about 10am instead of making until 12:30/1pm or so (the preferred naptime). After he'd screamed yesterday about not wanting his diaper changed, then WANTING his diaper changed, then wanting the toy Jared had, then throwing it down once Jared kindly shared it with him (etc), he suddenly turned very very sweet. I had gotten out a roll of Ritz crackers to pass a few out per kid as a SMALL snack since dinner was running late. Connor spotted me, held out one hand with the other hand pressed up against his chin in his sign for "thank you" (we haven't mastered "please" yet, unprompted, but an early "thank you" works just as well, in my opinion!). I gave him two crackers, and he started to take a bite, then started yelling "ded! ded!" (which as of two days ago, means "Jared"; and sometimes sounds more like "dird"). I handed him another two crackers and the sweet little mister ran right over and gave them to Jared! Then he ran back saying SOMETHING (he obviously hasn't mastered any sort of repeatable version of Emily's name yet), so I gave him another two crackers, which he promptly ran over and gave to Emily. I never told him to pass the crackers out; he just did it. I was so overwhelmed with how sweet he was, I just stood there and sighed and felt my love for this devil/angel child of mine grow all the more. I promptly called his daddy and bragged that our not-even-two-year-old BABY (because I can call him that until he's two) shared with his siblings without even being asked. HOW SWEET IS HE????

I tried to get a good video of him repeating words (especially saying "Jared" because it truly is pretty funny), but Jared kept distracting him, and Connor wasn't cooperating all that well anyway, so I only got a few words recorded:

A new baby!!

My friend Bree and her husband Brian welcomed their sweet new baby, Kelwyn, into their family on April 16th. They were trusting enough to allow me to fiddle around with Photoshop Elements and some pictures they'd sent me, and let me be in charge of creating a birth announcement. I blacked out his last name for privacy purposes...


Isn't he adorable? He's got his mommy's nose, I can tell that for sure. Otherwise, I've only seen him from his newborn pictures and have only met his daddy once (they live kind of far away!) so I can't say how much he resembles anyone else. LOL

NEW BEDS!

The new bunk beds for the boys finally made their way to our house yesterday late afternoon. We got the lower portion put together last night because Jared was excited to have his new bed, and we'll put the upper portion on tonight, probably. Neither Dan nor I trust Connor having anything to do with the ladder in that room (not for any navigational purposes on and off the ladder, but more what he'd do once he's up there...like FALL OFF), so Jared will stay in the lower bunk for probably another year and Connor will be in the little toddler bed. We'll just keep the ladder totally off for now, except the special occasions we plan to allow Emily up in the top bunk for "sleepovers" with her brothers. My other plan had been to keep Connor in the crib until this weekend and THEN work on getting him to stay put in the toddler bed when we weren't worried about everyone getting enough sleep for school/work the next day. HE, however, had far different plans, and as soon as Mr. Jared was settled into HIS new bed, Connor ran over, climbed into the toddler bed, propped his head up on one arm, then pointed to his crib in demand of his pillow, blanket, and sippy cup of water. He was far too adorable to resist!!! I have to admit I'm A LOT sad seeing my "baby" moved into a "big boy" bed. This time, there's no new BABY baby (of mine) on the way to take his place, and the crib will be gone within the next week or two, heading to my friend Bree, and HER new baby.

Jared is soooo excited about his new bed!!


Connor is sooooooo excited about HIS new bed as well!!


Jared, sound asleep:


Connor, sound asleep:


Connor, sound asleep, ON THE FLOOR????


That last one really cracked me up when I went in to check on the boys. I have no clue if he fell out, woke up enough to grab at his pillow and pull it down with him, or if he and the pillow all fell out at once, or what??

You can kind of see the crib next to the toddler bed in the pictures where Connor is still IN bed. I'm pretty sure we're taking it down today, then the bunks will go on THAT wall, and the toddler bed will go back on the wall where it was before (where Jared's bed is at the moment).

LOTS OF CHANGE!

Birthday Luncheon

My Aunt Cheryl hosted a birthday luncheon in honor of the May birthdays on that side of the family: Emily, my cousin Haylee, and myself. Because this year is my 30th birthday (29th, I tell you, TWENTY-NINETH!!!!! that's my story and I'm sticking to it), she did everything geared towards me (usually they're geared more towards Emily because she's just a little girl and the birthdays mean more to her!). Didn't she do a beautiful job on the table?




After a fabulous meal we went over in the livingroom area to open presents. After Emily and I had our turns, we sat back to watch Haylee open hers and my kids all piled up into my lap. They sat very nicely until I requested a picture, at which point, Connor decided he was done, and Emily apparently wasn't real into it either...


Apparently Emily isn't all that big on people singing Happy Birthday to her either?? (this is a cropped down version of a picture of all three birthday girls so you could clearly see her face!!)


I asked her about that face and she said she does NOT remember making it and says she really enjoyed the luncheon!

6 days and counting until I'm TWENTY-NINE (again). LOL